The present invention relates to a container as claimed in the preamble of claim 1.
Such containers are known in manifold ways. For example, there are containers having four sidewalls, all of which are arranged, by means of hinges, such that they can be folded onto the base of the container. Alternatively, containers are known wherein the short sides are typically folded upward and away from the container base, and the long sides, in turn, may be folded onto the base via a hinge connection. At the same time, an upper circumferential frame is thereby lowered onto the container base.
In this manner, the height of the container may be reduced, so that after using the container, considerably reduced floor space is needed for return transport or storage of the container.
The hinges used are mostly joint hinges, wherein hinge pins are received within orifices of the container base, or the sidewalls are fastened to the container base by means of integrally formed film hinges. Such film hinges are easy to clean and enable simple manufacturing. Joint hinges, in contrast, may easily be detached from the base, so that sidewalls may be replaced in the case of damage, and so that repairing the containers is possible.
A container comprising hinged sidewalls, wherein hinges arranged on the sidewall are placed into corresponding orifices in the container base and are locked there, are already known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,356 A. A stop cooperating with the hinge pin and being formed in the container base is to protect the hinge connection against impacts from outside.
A hinge connection wherein the hinge pin is enclosed by a rotating hinge sleeve is known, in turn, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,099 A. The hinge sleeve has a catch lug formed thereon which impinges on a stop when the sidewall is upright, so as to prevent further outward rotation of the sidewall beyond the vertical position.
A further implementation is shown in EP 0 958 177 B1, on which the present invention is based in accordance with the preamble of claim 1. In this implementation, the hinge pin is held within the hinge orifice of the container base by means of catch springs, the catch springs being implemented to be flexible, so that clamp-like insertion or removal of the hinge pin is possible. What is disadvantageous about this implementation is that this connection exhibits no high resistance against the upright sidewall being pulled out when the container is loaded. Due to the flexibility of the catch springs, the rim of the base may slump under load, and a sharp bend is obtained between the rim of the base and the sidewall, which has a negative impact on the load application.